Abstract: An image forming device includes: a fixing device that includes a fixing rotary member and thermally fixes a toner image onto a recording sheet by the fixing rotary member; a temperature sensor that senses a temperature of the fixing rotary member as a fixing temperature; a driving unit that drives the fixing rotary member to rotate; a torque sensor that senses a torque value of the driving unit in a torque sensing period in which at least one of the fixing temperature and a driving speed falls within a predetermined range, the driving speed being a speed of the driving unit for driving the fixing rotary member to rotate; and a prediction unit that predicts an operating life of the fixing device based on the sensed torque value.

Abstract: A controller is configured to operate a robot arm at a speed that is equal to or lower than a first maximum speed in a high-speed operation region, and operate the robot arm at a speed that is equal to or lower than a second maximum speed lower than the first maximum speed in a low-speed operation region, and change a collision detection sensitivity between the high-speed operation region and the low-speed operation region so that the collision detection sensitivity in the high-speed operation region becomes lower than the collision detection sensitivity in the low-speed operation region.

Abstract: Provided is a muffler for an air-conditioning apparatus, which is compact and has a small pressure loss, and an air-conditioning apparatus including the same. The muffler for an air-conditioning apparatus including a muffler main body which has small diameter portions on an inlet side and an outlet side, the small diameter portions having inner diameters smaller than an inner diameter of a central portion of the muffler main body, an inlet pipe connected to the small diameter portion on the inlet side of the muffler main body; and an outlet pipe connected to the small diameter portion on the outlet side of the muffler main body. The inlet pipe is inserted into the muffler main body, and has a distal end positioned at a center of a length from an inlet to an outlet of the muffler main body. The distal end side of the inlet pipe inserted into the muffler main body has an inner diameter smaller than an inner diameter of the inlet pipe on an upstream of the distal end side.

Abstract: An object of present invention is to provide a method for easily extracting and efficiently recovering xylan from wood. A xylan-containing material is produced by a method comprising steps of: (a) adding an acid and/or carbon dioxide to a black liquor discharged during a soda cooking step of wood chips including hardwood chips to adjust the pH of the black liquor to be in the range of 1 to 9, thereby giving a suspension; (b) dehydrating and washing an insoluble matter generated in the suspension to separately collect the insoluble matter; and (c) adding an organic solvent to the insoluble matter obtained at the step (b) to give a suspension, and separately collecting a xylan-containing material made of the insoluble matter present in the suspension by solid/liquid separation.

Abstract: A power supply device includes: a power supply circuit that converts an AC voltage into a DC voltage; and a control circuit that controls the power supply circuit, wherein the power supply circuit includes: a rectifying and smoothing circuit that rectifies and smoothes the AC voltage; a first voltage converting circuit that converts the voltage and outputs a first DC voltage; a second voltage converting circuit that switches the first DC voltage by a switching circuit to output a second DC voltage; a feedback circuit that detects and feeds back an output voltage of the first voltage converting circuit; and a selection circuit that switches a reference voltage of the feedback circuit, and the control circuit sets the switching circuit to be in a continuous connection state when a normal mode is shifted to a power saving mode and gradually switches the reference voltage.

Abstract: A vacuum valve placed between a vacuum vessel and a vacuum pump to adjust a valve opening degree using an operating fluid includes a packing mounted in a recessed groove of a piston. The packing is provided with a contact portion on a radially inner side and a contact portion on a radially outer side, and a slide-contact portion contacting with an inner peripheral surface of a cylinder. A portion between the contact portion and the slide-contact portion has a thin thickness.

Abstract: A power supply apparatus includes: a first primary winding; a first AC voltage outputter connected to one side of the first primary winding so as to output a first AC voltage; a second AC voltage outputter connected to the other side of the first primary winding and capable of outputting a second AC voltage with an inverted phase of the first AC voltage; a first secondary winding that generates a third AC voltage by mutual induction of the first primary winding to which the first AC voltage and the second AC voltage are applied; a second primary winding having one side receiving an input of the second AC voltage and the other side connected to a fixed voltage; and a second secondary winding that generates a fourth AC voltage by mutual induction of the second primary winding to which the second AC voltage is applied.

Abstract: One object is to provide a fishing line guide including a high-hardness guide ring and a fishing rod provided with said fishing line guide. A fishing line guide according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a guide body with a through hole formed therein and a guide ring fitted into the through hole of the guide body. In one aspect, the guide ring includes a base material layer and a surface layer formed on a surface of the base material layer. In one aspect of the present invention, the base material layer is formed of an alloy having an Fe content of 3 wt % or less or 2 wt % or less. In one aspect of the present invention, the surface layer is formed of chromium carbide, titanium carbide, or vanadium carbide.

Abstract: A liquid immersion cooling device for information processing apparatuses. The liquid immersion cooling device includes an immersion tank, a refrigerant liquid that is retained in the immersion tank, and a plurality of fillers that are filled in the immersion tank and that float on a surface of the refrigerant liquid to cover the surface of the refrigerant liquid.

Abstract: One object of the present invention is to provide a guide ring less prone to break due to an impact or wear. A fishing line guide according to one aspect of the present invention is to be used on a fishing rod and includes a guide body with a through hole formed therein and a guide ring fitted into the through hole of the guide body. The guide ring has a top portion that is most distant from the fishing rod in a vertical direction extending vertically with respect to an axial direction of the fishing rod, and the guide ring is configured such that a thickness of a guide rear portion on a rear side relative to the top portion is larger than that of a guide front portion on a front side relative to the top portion.

Abstract: A vacuum pressure control apparatus includes an annular elastic seal member formed with a valve seat, and a doubly eccentric butterfly valve element configured to come into contact or separate from the valve seat. The vacuum pressure control apparatus is to be placed on a pipe connecting a vacuum chamber and a vacuum pump. The vacuum pressure control apparatus is configured to rotate the butterfly valve element in a first direction from a first valve closed position corresponding to an initial state to change vacuum pressure in the vacuum chamber. The vacuum pressure control apparatus further includes a control unit configured to rotate the butterfly valve element in a direction opposite to a first direction so that the butterfly valve element is moved to a second valve closed position different from the first valve closed position.

Abstract: A robot system of the present invention comprises a robot (1) including a plurality of joints; a voice operation device (2) to which a voice operation command is input by an operator; and a controller (4) which controls an operation of the robot (1), the controller (4) being configured to change the operation of the robot (1), in a case where the voice operation device (2) detects a voice with a sound volume which is equal to or higher than a first predetermined sound volume which is preset, during the operation of the robot (1).

Abstract: A direct teaching method of a robot includes specifying one of a plurality of robot arms as a master arm and specifying as a slave arm at least one of the robot arms which is other than the master arm; causing the slave arm to operate cooperatively with the master arm so that relative positions and postures of a wrist part of the master arm and a wrist part of the slave arm become a predetermined relation, while a teaching person is directly applying a force to an arbitrary location of the master arm including a tool, to move the master arm to a desired teaching position; and storing position information of at least one of the master arm and the slave arm at a time point when the master arm has reached the desired teaching position.

Abstract: When cleaning a mold using a mold cleaning system, three-dimensional image data of a molding surface of the mold is acquired by a camera, movement of arms is controlled by a control device based on the acquired image data, and a laser head is moved along the molding surface while a laser beam provided from a laser oscillator is irradiated to remove contamination adhered to the molding surface. Cleaning is performed on a specific site, using a relatively small laser head, or also using a relatively large laser head, or cleaning is performed using a laser head having a variable laser irradiation width and setting an appropriate laser irradiation width for each site to be cleaned.

Abstract: An operation program creating method comprises performing, with a computer, a speed setting step that creates an operation program of a robot in such a manner that speeds at a plurality of teaching points are set, and in the speed setting step, the speed at a specified teaching point on the designed movement path is set based on a position change or a posture change in a plurality of teaching points including the specified teaching point, a teaching point which is upstream of the specified teaching point on the designed movement path, and/or a teaching point which is downstream of the specified teaching point on the designed movement path.

Abstract: By repeating for each control axis, that an axis angle of each control axis of an arm is detected during a direct teaching of a robot, a current position of a standard point defined on the arm or a tool is obtained based on the axis angle, a position instruction value that uses a position obtained by projecting the current position on a given movement route (moving direction) is generated as a target position, and each control axis is driven based on the position instruction value, until a deviation of an instruction angle corresponding to the position instruction value and the detected axis angle, or a deviation of the position instruction value and the current position of the standard point corresponding to the detected axis angle reaches a given value or below, the robot is taught, after the deviation becomes the given value or below, positional information on the arm.

Abstract: A power supply device includes: a power supply circuit that converts an AC voltage into a DC voltage; and a control circuit that controls the power supply circuit, wherein the power supply circuit includes: a rectifying and smoothing circuit that rectifies and smoothes the AC voltage; a first voltage converting circuit that converts the voltage and outputs a first DC voltage; a second voltage converting circuit that switches the first DC voltage by a switching circuit to output a second DC voltage; a feedback circuit that detects and feeds back an output voltage of the first voltage converting circuit; and a selection circuit that switches a reference voltage of the feedback circuit, and the control circuit sets the switching circuit to be in a continuous connection state when a normal mode is shifted to a power saving mode and gradually switches the reference voltage.

Abstract: A power supply apparatus includes: a first primary winding; a first AC voltage outputter connected to one side of the first primary winding so as to output a first AC voltage; a second AC voltage outputter connected to the other side of the first primary winding and capable of outputting a second AC voltage with an inverted phase of the first AC voltage; a first secondary winding that generates a third AC voltage by mutual induction of the first primary winding to which the first AC voltage and the second AC voltage are applied; a second primary winding having one side receiving an input of the second AC voltage and the other side connected to a fixed voltage; and a second secondary winding that generates a fourth AC voltage by mutual induction of the second primary winding to which the second AC voltage is applied.

Abstract: A pneumatic tire is configured in such a manner that at least two carcass layers each have both end portions in the tire width direction extending to bead cores disposed in both bead portions, and the both end portions are wound up from the inner side in the tire width direction of the bead cores to the outer side in the tire width direction, and extend outward in the tire radial direction. In such a pneumatic tire, the carcass layers are formed by thermoplastic sheets, and a rubber layer is disposed at least between adjacent sheets of the thermoplastic sheets.

Abstract: An immersion cooling device includes a refrigerant tank configured to accommodate a refrigerant liquid in which an electronic device is immersed; a seal tank configured to accommodate a sealing material and communicate with the refrigerant tank through an upper space of the seal tank, a cable connected to the electronic device being disposed in the upper portion space; and a partition member that, in a state in which a portion of the cable disposed in the upper portion space is immersed in the sealing material in a liquid state, partitions the upper portion space into a first space that is in communication with the refrigerant tank, and a second space that is in communication with an outside of the seal tank.